All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Asthma inhalers (i.e., inhaled corticosteroids) are the first line of asthma treatment. However, one of the most vexing problems facing clinicians and researchers has been the lack of technologies to measure treatment compliance and/or efficacy. The typical methods to measure ICS compliance—patient self-report of medication use and medication canister weighing or counting actuations are not optimal for both adults and children. Patient self-report of asthma inhaler use is notoriously inaccurate. Other advanced methods such as electronic monitoring of ICS compliance are limited because it will not be able to detect whether the medication is actually inhaled. Thus, there is a need in the art for a readily accessible method to identify asthma inhaler compliance or treatment efficacy.